Breaking the 15MW Barrier - Next-Gen Wind Turbines

The offshore wind industry is pushing beyond familiar limits. Turbines rated at 15MW and above are no longer prototypes — they are entering commercial deployment. Designs exceeding 20MW are already in development, bringing new structural challenges that cannot be solved by simply scaling up past solutions.

Larger turbines mean longer blades, taller towers, and greater forces acting on every component. Dynamic wind loads, wave-induced vibrations, and cyclic stresses are intensifying, testing the limits of existing verification methods. The forces at play are complex, and failure modes that were once secondary concerns — fatigue in welds, buckling in slender structures, joint integrity under fluctuating loads — are now primary design risks.

Traditional verification workflows struggle to keep pace. Hand calculations and static code checks no longer capture the whole picture. Engineers must validate designs against industry standards while ensuring fatigue resistance, structural stability, and material optimisation. Without efficient verification, projects face unnecessary delays, excessive conservatism, and overlooked structural vulnerabilities.